Seeing the light while photographing at the National Music Centre

Seeing the light while photographing at the National Music Centre

This past weekend, I took my Mount Royal Photography class to the National Music Centre. After studying light in the classroom earlier in the week, our goal was to capture it. Once of the challenges I gave my students was to capture an image which was compelling or interesting because of the light. I also took the challenge myself.

Since visiting for the first time in the fall, I have fallen in love with the architecture of the newly opened music museum in Calgary, Alberta. In particular, light plays a huge part in how the building looks and is ultimately photographed. The curved walls, the angled lines of staircases and the natural window light creates a visually stunning setting.

Each time I have visited the museum, I have looked for that certain angle and this time around, I was able to capture what I had wanted. The day was slightly overcast but that helped to make the light more even and made the stairwell visually more appealing. Even though there are lots of shadows and ample highlights, there is enough difference in the dynamic range between the two to see details in the setting.

Light plays a huge impact in the images we take. We always have to be conscious of the direction of light? The amount of light? And is it hard or soft light? When we stop and think about these things, it can help create more compelling images.

This image was photographed in Sepia on a Canon 5D Mark III, with a 105 mm lens, Shutter: 1/160th, Aperture: f:4. The image was worked in Photoshop and final edit was done with Aurora HDR.